Canvas Rules feature deprecation
Rules in canvas apps is a feature that let you record actions to be performed under a condition which you can write an expression for. It was a feature marked as experimental. See more on experimental features.
Moving forward with Rules feature deprecation
Few people have made use of Rules in their apps. From feedback collected through research and discussions with makers of PowerApps, the Rules feature was confusing, and expressions were easier to learn, as well as use and debug.
The current implementation of the Rules feature will be phased out. This starts by introducing the toggle in File > Settings Advanced settings. For now, all new apps and old apps without rules will have this set to off by default. All apps with existing rules will have this toggle set to on by default. The apps with Rules will still continue to work, all previously authored rules will still work. You will be able to turn Rules on again for apps that don’t have them, however this is discouraged at this time.
Next we will be adding warnings to the Rules in apps, with documentation on how to create expressions to replace common scenarios. We will upgrade the warnings to error flags as the step after.
The PowerApps team plans to address the scenarios that Rules was intended to cover for validation, conditional formatting and others, in a more usable, cohesive way for the platform. By removing this Rules feature, we are not removing the ability to perform these actions from the product. It will still be possible to create the expressions needed for validation, formatting and the other uses of Rules through expressions but built without Rules or its interface.
Also note: we will be adjusting the PowerApps training template as it contains an introduction to Rules. It is a known gap at this time to be updated.
How to remove Rules from your app
- Navigate to the Rules pane.
- Uncheck the “Show rules for this control only” checkbox.
- Select the trash can icon to delete that rule. Note: Properties will be replaced with a default value. For the same condition and value as the rule, it will need to be replaced with an expression.
Questions/Concerns? Let us know in the comments below. Tag @emmac in the PowerApps community forums or @PowerEmmz on Twitter.
